Frequently, people use credit to purchase consumer items, such as automobiles, televisions or computers. The purchasers take possession of the item and take it to their homes or offices and put them into use. They are responsible for making periodic payments to the creditor, the person or entity that extended the credit, to pay off the loan. The creditor retains a lien on the property and is also known as a "lien-holder".
In today's mobile society, people frequently move from one location to another. When they move, they typically take their possessions, including those possessions covered by a lien held by the lien-holder. Sometimes when they move they stop making their periodic payments to the lien-holder, perhaps believing that they no longer have to make payments and that the lien-holder will not be able to locate them.
Further, some people simply move a possession, such as an automobile, covered by a lien, in order to hide it from the lien-holder when they stop making payments.
In either case, the lien-holder is faced with having to locate and take possession of the item covered by the lien. At times, such a process can be expensive, time consuming, and even dangerous, requiring the lien-holder to hire investigators to locate the debtor and, hopefully, the item covered by the lien.
Stolen items present a similar challenge. In the case of automobiles, thieves can steal a car, take it to a "chop shop", or a specially outfitted body shop where the automobile is dismantled into salable parts in just a few hours. The traditional response to an automobile theft is to report the theft to the police who then do their best to find the automobile before it is dismantled.
Other consumer items can be dismantled or otherwise placed into an underground market within just a few hours of their theft. Alternatively, such items can be removed to the thief's home, where they are hidden from the eyes of the police or other investigators.
Even people are subject to being "stolen", or kidnapped. Again, the traditional response is to report a missing person to the police and other law enforcement agencies who then conduct a search for the missing person.